'Concordia Res Parvae Crescunt'. Regional Histories And The Dutch Republic In The Seventeenth Century

10.1163/ej.9789004155275.i-310.19

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Chapter Summary

This chapter addresses the issue of contesting identities in the Dutch Republic through a study of the historiography of two very different provinces, Gelderland and Zeeland, in the mid-seventeenth century. The examples were chosen because they provide two particular, very different historiographical traditions. There are some references to Gelderland and its opposition against Maximilian and Philip. Here, the sympathies of the author are undoubtedly on the side of the Burgundians, who get support from Zeeland’s finest men during their campaign against the unruly Duke Karel van Egmond. Moreover, both provinces had a distinctly different relationship to Holland, which is clearly reflected in their histories. They demonstrate that the story of the Dutch Revolt was only one factor in the shaping and re-shaping of regional identity in the seventeenth century and that alliances with neighbouring territories and their changes played an equally important part in this process.